


Calling it Even

by Lalikaa



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Gen, Karaoke, M/M, Nekoma, Tokyo (City), Tokyo Tower, sometimes your volleyball team crashes your date it's nbd
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-28
Updated: 2020-05-28
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:22:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,743
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24343459
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lalikaa/pseuds/Lalikaa
Summary: Sakunami travels to Tokyo to visit his boyfriend, Shibayama, not expecting their date to be crashed by roughly a third of Nekoma’s volleyball team....Yikes.
Relationships: Sakunami Kousuke/Shibayama Yuuki
Comments: 6
Kudos: 37





	Calling it Even

**Author's Note:**

  * For [BokutosBabysitter](https://archiveofourown.org/users/BokutosBabysitter/gifts).



> Another fic for the Shibayama/Sakunami tag, woo!!
> 
> This fic follows up from my other fic "Jellyfish Waltz", though reading it isn't necessary to reading this fic!
> 
> I hope you enjoy!!

Some would say that spending all of your birthday money on a one-day trip to Tokyo to visit your boyfriend of two and a half months was not the most practical of plans.

Those people had never met Shibayama Yuki. 

Despite the two having only been dating for a few months, Sakunami was as smitten as ever. He almost couldn’t decide if it was worse or better now that he could call Shibayama his boyfriend. True, everything was better now that they were boyfriends, but at the same time, it was hard not to spontaneously combust every time he thought about it. 

Luckily, Sakunami was able to convince his parents to approve of him going by insisting that he suddenly was very interested in going to college in Tokyo, completely glossing over the fact that he had planned for almost a year now on going to a trade school in Sendai. Still, his parents didn’t need to know that his plans were not to visit various campuses, but to instead spend the day with undoubtedly the most attractive high school libero in Japan. 

Sakunami had brought up the idea of visiting for a day to Shibayama a couple of weeks ago, and was met with incredulous support. 

“I mean- if you really want to?” Shibayama had said, almost as if doubting Sakunami had even suggested it. “I would pay for half your ticket though, the bullet train isn’t exactly cheap.”

“You can just treat me to lunch and we’ll call it even,” Sakunami had said, trying to sound suave, although his voice cracking on the last half of his sentence ruined everything. 

Shibayama didn’t seem to mind this though, and instead seemed stuck on the fact that Sakunami was willing to travel over 400 miles roundtrip so they could spend a single day together. 

“You’re really sure?” He had asked for likely the 60th time by the end of the call. 

“One hundred percent positive,” Sakunami had assured him. 

And now, here he was, two weeks later, one hundred percent positive he was going to pass out from anticipation as he waited on the platform. Koganegawa and Goshiki had offered to walk him to the station, and Sakunami had let them because hell, he could use all the moral support he could get at this point. 

“You’re gonna have a great time!” Koganegawa said, thumping Sakunami on the back.

“He’d be an idiot not to appreciate you visiting him,” Goshiki added. 

“He’d be an idiot not to appreciate you dating him,” Koganegawa chimed. 

Sakunami did his best to not turn bright red. To distract himself he asked; “So what are you two up to today?”

“Probably playing volleyball and then making out a bunch,” Koganegawa said with zero self-awareness or shame. 

“You might have the same kinda day!” Goshiki said, as though to encourage Sakunami. 

Oddly enough, Sakunami _was_ comforted by this. He had spent a good amount of time stressing over what they would do and what he would say once he arrived, so just the simple idea that hey, they could always play volleyball and smooch… you know. That wasn’t too bad of an outcome. 

The trip to Tokyo was less than two hours (seriously, god bless bullet trains), and Sakunami found that this wasn’t quite enough time to stress out as much as he needed. Though that was probably a good thing.

Nearing the end of the journey, his mind had instead wandered over to Shibayama’s smile, how his dimples accentuated his cheekbones, how his jaw line was so fucking kissable...

 _Goddamn_ , _how am I going to survive this day?_ Sakunmai vaguely thought as he exited the train. 

Because it was Sunday, Tokyo Station wasn’t quite as crowded as Sakunami had seen it before, but at the same time, it was still Tokyo, and he still felt like the entire population of Sendai was bustling through the underground maze. Thankfully the maps and signs in Tokyo Station were all very clear and helpful, so Sakunami was able to find his connecting train without too much difficulty. 

The difficult part, of course, was still thinking about how he would greet Shibayama when he saw him. He was meeting him at Nekoma High School, as their Nationals-level team was crazy and held practices even on Sundays. Would he high-five him? Handshake? Hug? Fist-bump? Awkwardly wave? There were too many options and Sakunami hated them all. An uncomfortable feeling swelled in the pit of his stomach as he thought; _Maybe I shouldn’t have come after all. Maybe Shibayama acted like he was fine with me coming, but really it’s weird._

These thoughts overwhelmed Sakunami so much that he almost walked into a pole. 

_Or maybe I’m just a grade A idiot._

Miraculously, Sakunami made it to Nekoma without falling over himself, and he only got turned around once at one of the many bustling stations of Tokyo. Sakunami found himself wandering the station at his last stop a little longer than necessary, checking out the architecture of one of the tunnels. _It’d be kinda cool to build a station like this one day_ , he thought. 

He briefly considered picking Shibayama up a gift, but decided against it, especially since he’d be showing up at his school where the whole volleyball team would be. 

Once he’d arrived at Nekoma, he was able to appreciate truly how big the campus was. He pulled out his phone to double-check instructions on finding the volleyball gym, their agreed meeting spot, and was also pleased when he checked the time and saw that he was going to be ten minutes early from when they agreed to meet. 

While waiting outside the gym, with the sound of shouts and cool-down drill instructions in the background, his thoughts drifted back to their first date, at the aquarium, how he’d been so nervous. And he was _still_ nervous. Sakunami wished there was a way that his body could just adjust to romantic feelings like it had adjusted to being a libero. Muscle memory, with lots of training and pratice. Somehow, Sakunami felt that no amount of training could get his heart used to all his pent-up feelings.

 _Maybe they won’t be so pent-up, the more we go on dates, though?_ He vaguely thought. 

“Kosuke-kun!” Shibayama’s head poked out from behind the gym.

“Hey, Yuki!” 

“First name basis, huh?” Another voice cut in. 

Shibayama was too busy giving Sakunami a hug to pay any attention to the blonde mohawked guy who had said this, which Sakunami was very appreciative of, because he didn’t quite know what to say either.

Had Shibayama told his team they were dating, or…?

Sakunami decided not to press it. Instead he said, “Good to see you! How was practice?

“It was good! I made a ton of saves.”

“Mostly because Lev still sucks at spiking,” the mohawk guy said, strolling up to them. “What’s up? I’m Taketora.”

“Tora- _chan_ , are you harrassing Shibayama?” This voice was attached to a guy with hair dyed blonde about halfway. What was with this team and dyed hair? Was Shibayama on a team of punks or something?!

“Whatever, Kenma.”

“Just ignore Taketora-san,” Shibayam stage-whispered, as Taketora yelled out, “ _Hey!_ ”

“Wise words, hummingbirds,” yet another voice said, this one sounding almost like the person speaking had just had their daydream interrupted. The person had seemed to materialize next to Sakunami, who jumped just a bit in surprise. 

“Oh, this is Fukunaga-san,” Shibayam supplied, as Fukunaga lifted both hands up for what Sakunami had correctly guessed was for a double high-five. “He… says things.”

“What’d Fukunaga-san say?” A loud voice, belonging to a ridiculously tall foreigner, asked. 

“Lev, come say hi! Oh, Inuoka, you too! This is Sakunami Kosuke, my b- friend I was talking to you guys about!”

Sakunami couldn’t help but internally wilt at the correction, but in a way, it made sense. No use announcuing your romantic life to your whole team. Sakunami definitely wouldn’t. 

“Hi, I’m Lev!” Sure enough, Lev towered over Sakunami. This guy was even taller than Aone, which was highly impressive in Sakunami’s book. 

“Inuoka Sou,” the other teammate said. “Nice to finally meet you! Shibayama doesn’t shut up ab-”

“Inuoka, _stop_ ,” Shibayama said, and Sakunami grinned. 

More boys began walking out of the gym, and Shibayama introduced him to most of them. Nekoma certainly had a sizable team. 

“Hey, I’m gonna go take a shower real quick, then I’ll be right back, ok? You were a little early, so I had kind of hoped I’d be ready to go by the time you got here,” Shibayama said sheepishly. 

“It’s no problem,” Sakunami said. “I don’t mind waiting a bit.”

True to his word, Shibayama took hardly 10 minutes to return from the locker rooms. The two immediately began discussing what they should do, and decided on lunch, as it was now almost noon and Shibayama claimed to be starving. Luckily, there were numerous restuarants around the area, as Shibayama showed Sakunami on his phone. 

“Oooh, lunch sounds great! We should all go!” Lev said enthusiastically walking up from behind them, reminding Sakunami painfully of Koganegawa. 

“It’s not a date if the whole fucking team comes, dumbass,” an upperclassman, who Sakunami remembered was Yaku, said, kicking Lev. 

Sakunami, barely processing that Yaku had recognized he and Shibayama were dating, found himself saying; “Oh, I don’t mind!”

Wait.

Wait. 

Maybe he _did_ mind.

But it was too late. Inuoka was already excitedly talking to Shibayama about places to have lunch. 

One of the upperclassmen (Sakunami couldn’t remember his name at the moment), kindly asked him what he wanted for lunch, but Sakunami’s head was too busy spinning trying to grab hold of the situation that he’d just agreed to go on a date with like, half of his boyfriend’s volleyball team.

“How about that shabu-shabu place a couple blocks away?” The upperclassman with incredibly messy hair, and who Sakunami remembered was the captain of the team, suggested. 

Everyone immediately agreed, and before Sakunami knew it, he was walking along in a group of about a dozen boys. 

“Well, because you know, it’s Tokyo, I thought we could go to Tokyo tower,” Shibayama was saying as they walked to the shabu-shabu restaurant. “Unless you’ve already been-”

“I haven’t! That sounds great!” Sakunami said. 

Shibayama smiled, seemingly relieved. “Hey, do you want me to go over everyone’s names?”

Sakunami was so, so grateful as Shibayama very helpfully went through a quick run-down of the eight boys on his team who'd decided to get food with them. He then said: 

“Hey, sorry about…” He gestured to his team walking in front of them. “...All this.”

“It’s ok! I mean, it’s a little overwhelming but-”

“What’s overwhelming?!” Lev shouted, falling back from the group to keep in step with Shibayama and Sakunami.

“ _You_ ,” Shibayama said, as Sakunami tried not to laugh.

“Lev’s _always_ overwhelming,” Inuoka said, falling back to walk with the other three boys. 

“I’ve never been overwhelming in my life.”

“Dude, just your existence is overwhelming- you’re like 5 meters tall!” Inuoka said.

“Hey now, Inuoka-kun, it’s not Lev’s fault half of his personality is being tall,” Shibayama said slyly. 

“I resplend that!”

“Do you mean _resent_?” Shibayama taunted.

“I _meant_ you suck!”

Inuoka just laughed, and Sakunami figured this was probably pretty typical for them. The three continued to banter until Yaku called back to them: 

“Are you guys done being jackasses? We’re here!” 

Once they all entered the shabu-shabu restaurant, the first thing they did was try and find a table that would accommodate ten high school boys. With permission from one of the waiting staff, Kuroo and Kai pushed two tables together to create a table big enough for everyone.

“Shabu-shabu is one of my favorites,” Shibayama said as he sat down next to Sakunami. 

“What’s your favorite thing to put in it?” Sakunami asked him.

“Definitely a lot of pork!” Inuoka answered him. 

“Mushrooms,” Fukunaga said thoughtfully.

“You have to have fish broth or the whole pot is trash,” Kuroo said.

“Meat broth or nothing,” Yaku intervened.

“He wasn’t asking any of us,” Kenma said pointedly. 

“It’s fine!” Shibayama said, not wanting to come off as rude, but also not quite denying that having an entire new team’s attention all on him was a little… much. 

“So how long have you been playing volleyball?” Kai asked pleasantly.

“Only since middle school. My parents wanted me to try out a different sport because, you know, I’m short, but once I found out about the libero position, I felt like I was pretty set, you know?”

Ah, shit, he felt like he was rambling. 

“You don’t have to be tall to be good at volleyball,” Kenma said, a slight glint in his eye.

“It does help, though!” Lev said, with apparently zero awareness. 

“Being smart in volleyball helps too, ya know,” Taketora said.

“Yeah, it does, _Tora_ ,” Kenma said with a smile that was almost scary. 

Why did Kenma give off such intimidating vibes, anyway?

Fukunaga then did something strange; he lifted up the pitcher of water on the table and held it over his head. This seemed to have the desired effect though, as Taketora stopped himself halfway towards an insult in Kenma’s direction, and Kenma, with all the grace of a cat alarmed by bathwater, pulled out his phone. 

“So what are we all ordering?” Kuroo said, as if this was all normal. Maybe it was for them? Sakunami couldn’t super judge anyone based on his own crazy team. 

Inuoka suggested everyone pass the menu tablet around to order what they liked, and within 10 minutes, plates of meat and vegetables started loading down their table. Luckily they had ordered four broth bowls, so there was plenty. 

Kuroo and Yaku ended up arguing over comparing fish and beef broth while the rest of the team joined in on this passionate debate. In the end, beef won out, despite Kuro protesting that since he was captain, his side of the argument should win.

“You are _not_ pulling the captain card today!” Yaku said through a mouthful of his meal.

“Alright, alright,” Kai said, and miraculously this seemed to work, as Kuroo and Yaku immediately stopped arguing. 

Sakunami decided not to underestimate the power both Fukunaga and Kai held. If they were the wranglers of the second and third years, respectively, he briefly wondered who the wrangler of the first years was. 

After the meal, Kuroo, Yaku, and Kai all seemed to be having a silent stare-down over who would pay the bill. Kuroo appeared to have won, as he whipped out a credit card, while Yaku mumbled, “Bastard” in Kuroo’s direction. Kuroo smirked; “I guess I _can_ pull the captain card, huh?”

“So where are we headed next?” Lev said as they all exited the restaurant.

“Tokyo Tower!” Sakunami said, before realizing his mistake.

Was… was the Nekoma volleyball team going to _continue_ following them on their date?

The answer to this, Sakunami found as he and nine other boys rode the train to Minato-ku, was yes. 

Tokyo Tower, in person, was so much more impressive than any postcard or gift shop magnet. Shibayama offered to take a selfie with Sakunami in front of it, which turned into an entire group shot taken by a pair of nice Canadian tourists. 

The elevator ride up was cool, but the loud cracking noise it made near the end was less-than-pleasant, and although they'd been warned, Lev still exclaimed loudly; “That was scary!” 

Once they exited the elevator, Shibayama discreetly took Sakunami’s hand and led him over to a prime window spot. It was considerably crowded, but the two managed to snag a solid viewpoint.

The view was breath-taking. Sakunami looked at Shibayama, who was grinning widely. “Look, and see, that’s the rainbow bridge! It looks cooler all lit up at night, though.”

“I think it looks pretty cool now! You ever think about how long it would take to build something like that?” Sakunami immediately kicked himself for saying that aloud. How lame could he be?

“You know, I haven’t, but you’re right, that must’ve taken years.”

Sakunami couldn’t help himself. He pulled out his phone to google it. “Yeah, wow, it took over 6 years!”

“What are you guys talking about?” Lev bounded up with Inuoka as well as Fukunaga, who Sakunami secretly suspected was on babysitting duty for his underclassmen. Well, there went he and his boyfriend's four seconds of alone time. 

“How nice it would be if my date was, you know, an actual date,” Shibayama said, and Sakunami got the feeling that he trusted these three in particular. 

Fukunaga gave an apologetic head nod, but Inuoka said; “But you’re having fun, right Sakunami-kun? Tokyo’s really cool, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, I’m having fun! And Tokyo is way cool, there’s tons of things to do here. This view is amazing, I don’t know how anyone could look at anything else!”

As if on cue, they heard: 

“Kenma, we’re looking at Tokyo’s beautiful landscape, _not catching Pokemon,_ ” Kuroo chided Kenma, yanking his phone out of his hands. Sakunami saw Kuroo close out of Pokemon Go on the phone while Kenma grumbled. ;2

Fukunaga went to go give Kenma a sympathetic pat on the shoulder, leaving the underclassmen to talk.

“So how many times have you been to Tokyo?” Inuoka asked.

“Only a few times,” Sakunami said. “It’s really not _that_ far from Sendai.”

“We’re glad you could come!” Lev said cheerfully.

The four of them then stared out the giant windows in comfortable silence. Tokyo really was an incredible city. He could see buildings stretching out for kilometers, the bay glitterting in the sunlight in the distance. 

After spending about an hour enjoying the view and chatting with various teammates, the group decided to leave the Tower.

"Well," Lev said expectantly once they were back outside the Tower. "What are we doing next?"

“We should do karaoke!” Inuoka exclaimed.

“Isn’t it a little early for karaoke?” Taketora asked no one in particular.

“You get the cheapest prices this way,” Kuroo said.

“You’re such a frugal old man,” Yaku said, rolling his eyes.

“He really is,” Kenma put in, saying the first words he’d said since they left the tower.

Fukunaga nodded in agreement. 

“It sounds fun! We should go for it!” Shibayama said with a smile that easily could’ve blinded someone for life.

Sakunami could say no to many things. 

He could never say no to Shibayama, no matter how terrible of a singer he was. Sakunami had avoided several karaoke invites before because of how self-conscious he was about his voice. 

Once they ordered a room and their drink menu, Yaku and Taketora immediately began arguing about what song they should sing. The argument was settled by Kai, who had entered in a ballad while the other two were arguing, and proceeded to belt out the lyrics with deep, awe-inspiring vocals.

How the hell was Sakunamu going to follow _this_ up? 

Thankfully, he didn’t have to, as Lev and Inuoka took the microphones next to sing a pop song, followed up by Fukunaga who sang a death metal song with an alarming amount of yelling. 

Kuroo seemingly had forced Kenma to do a duet with him, and both of them had good voices, too. 

“Your turn!” Inuoka said, shoving a mic into Sakunami’s hands. 

“It’s ok, I don’t-”

“Oooh, they have Phoenix! Let’s sing it!” Shibayama said, his eyes shining brightly. Sakunaki wanted so badly to kiss him, but gripped the mic harder instead.

The song started, and Sakunami found himself belting the lyrics out nonetheless. Singing with Shibayama was so fun that he almost forgot how off-key he was. 

It was midway through Yamamoto and Lev’s pop punk duet that Shibayama offered to do a drink run for everyone, as they’d ordered the unlimited drinks pack. Sakunami went with him.

At the drink fountain, Shibayama said, “Hey, I know this day wasn’t as private as you probably wanted it…”

“I’m still having fun! It’s cool to meet all your teammates,” Sakunami said. He then leaned forward and whispered in Shibayama’s ear; “This just means I have to come back.”

Shibayama briefly put his hand on Sakunami’s cheek, but the sound of a door opening jolted them both, and they quickly put some distance between them as they finished loading up their respective trays with everyone’s drinks.

Once they got back to the room, the team thanked them for the drinks, then insisted they sing another song (after Kuroo finished what seemed to be a passionate solo of a song by YUI). 

Shibayama chose Lemon, and the two belted it out, though the rest of the team joined them because hey, it was Lemon. How could you _not_ want to sing along?

The song ended and Yaku announced that they should clear out, as they only had a few minutes left anyway.

Outside the karaoke place, everyone wished Sakunami safe travels back, and Sakunami was surprised to realize it was already past six o’ clock. 

After another round of good-byes, Shibayama rode with Sakunami back to Tokyo Station. After Sakunami bought his bullet train ticket for the way back home, they stood together in a corner of the station that had slightly less foot-traffic. If that was possible for Tokyo Station (in other words, it wasn’t really _that_ much less traffic). 

“Today was really amazing,” Sakunami said. 

“I’m so glad you came,” Shibayama said at the same time. 

Sakunami wasn’t sure what to say then, so he leaned in for a quick kiss. A little PDA never killed anyone, right?

Judging from the look on Shibayama’s face, which was now bright red, he supposed it could’ve maybe just killed his boyfriend, though. 

“Too much?” Sakunami asked.

“A little,” Shibayama wheezed.

“I’ll come back for another date as soon as I can,” Sakunami said, opting to change the subject and still slightly reeling from the fact that he’d just kissed his boyfriend _in public._

“And hopefully next time my entire team won’t come along.”

Sakunami just laughed. “I had a lot of fun, though!”

“Wait, next time I’ll come up and visit you!” Shibayama said. 

“You already visited, though. The aquarium was fun, too.”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t count, it was a school trip. I’ll come up some other time, hopefully soon!” Shibayama said, determined. 

“Then,” Sakunami grinned, “ I guess we’ll be able to call it even.”

**Author's Note:**

> I based this fic off of my own experiences in Tokyo when I visited last summer. So this was a bit nostaglic for me to write! Japanese karoke is truly the best, and if you ever get a chance to go, the unlimited drinks option is worth it!!
> 
> In the fic, the song Phoenix is a reference to the fourth opening of Haikyuu by Burnout Syndromes.
> 
> Lemon by Kenshi Yonezu is a really popular karoke song in Japan (when I was there, my friend insisted upon singing it at every karoke place we went to haha). 
> 
> Please leave a comment if you enjoyed! <3


End file.
